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No Reviews. Just experiences.Fri, 18 Aug 2017 04:59:19 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/232444a476787c121e4dec7ec7f3a294?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngpixl presshttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com
Snore White and the Huntsmanhttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/snore-white-and-the-huntsman/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/snore-white-and-the-huntsman/#respondWed, 20 Jun 2012 02:07:35 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1966Continue reading →]]>This is a film convinced it’s as epic as Lord of the Rings with Brother’s Grimm (movie) flair. Movies, as in fairy tales, are about the journey, not the destination. The journey in Snow White is so mind-bogglingly boring that by the time you get to the end-game you just want to go home.

This could be a by-product of another misleading trailer, of which this one was action packed:

The primary poster advertised was ripe with an armor clad Kristen Stewart, shield in hand. Despite a few (very short, sweet) actions scenes, mostly with the Huntsman, it didn’t live up to the hype. Like Lord of the Rings, it’s a walking fantasy with dwarfs/hobbits, not a talking/fighting fantasy, and it falls short in both respects.

The character development meets the bare minimum required to make it to the box office. Snow White’s troubled childhood isn’t fully fleshed out, but instead a collection of a few quick flashes of elegant Theron beauty/devilry and a brief note on the relationship of William to Snow.

The Evil Queen, Charlize Theron, is known for her talent as well as her looks, but she doesn’t live up to her standards in this flick. Most of her lines were cringe worthy and embarrassing. Yelling only makes it worse.

Chris Hemsworth as the huntsman, though a slightly enjoyable character because of his sarcastic personality and axe skills, still isn’t strong enough to support the cast. His relationship with Snow, as with William, is ultimately left ambiguous by the time the credits roll. The best performance, and arguably the most minor, was portrayed by Sam Spruell, who played the Evil Queen’s brother, Finn.

Some of the notable cameos include Nick Frost (Paul, Shaun of the Dead) and Bob Hoskins (Hook, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) as dwarfs, which added a little in the way of comic relief, but not enough. Through the first hour of the film it seemed the seven dwarfs were all but forgotten.

It’s hard to care about character struggles if we don’t care about the characters. As a result, this movie is as boring as it can get. It can garner a certain begrudging respect for its beautiful special effects, and attempts at creating a dramatic fantasy, but it doesn’t delve deep enough into the potentially rich character pool. Save yourself two and a half hours of boredom, unless you need a good nap.

]]>https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/snore-white-and-the-huntsman/feed/0omgpleasesavethisthingaliciamartianFalse AdvertisingEvil SexycongratsThe Only Avengers Review You Need to Readhttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/the-only-avengers-review-you-need-to-read/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/the-only-avengers-review-you-need-to-read/#commentsSun, 06 May 2012 02:08:53 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1956]]>It was awesome. You should watch it.]]>https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/the-only-avengers-review-you-need-to-read/feed/2And stay after the credits. Both of them.aliciamartianMy Free Comics Day Experiencehttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/my-free-comics-day-experience/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/my-free-comics-day-experience/#commentsSat, 05 May 2012 23:02:55 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1938Continue reading →]]>First off, I want to say that I grew up with comics but, within the last decade or so, we have gone our separate ways. Not that they had nothing to offer me, but sometimes you just venture off through other corridors of life and they may not include your first loves. With that being said, a friend had mentioned that this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day at all comic book shops and online outlets and seeing as how my Cinco de Mayo was wide open; I decided to patronize my local comic book haberdashery to partake in a reunion of a life that once was.

It is a hot day in Texas and, while I do have working A/C in my mode of transportation, I am strangely accustomed to driving with my windows down and music up. Those whose first rides were old clunkers may understand this degree of self-torture but I digress. I bring this fact up because when I stepped into the store, the cool air hit me like a refrigerated hug and the smell of crisp paper filled my senses as I slowly walked the halls of Lone Star Comics. Past the toys, board games, strategy pieces, and a group of jocks that had just returned from seeing The Avengers and were debating who would win in a fight between Iron Man and Batman (seriously, it was almost as amusing as a group of dweebs battling the same topic); the bounty of free comics resided in the back and were catered by a nice, petite girl by the name of Barbara. No picture, sorry.

There were a decent number of comics spread out upon a table, some familiar some foreign. I entered polite conversation as I peeked through a few issues of recognizable characters and then moved onto ones that seemed intriguing. Here is a highlight of the swag I clutched in my dweeby hands for the remainder of my time there.

The First Pick

This one is a dual sided comic that introduces the storyline from both The Avengers:X-Sanction and The Defenders. What drew me to this one was obviously the recognizable heroes that were strewn about the cover and what appeared to be, and later confirmed, Cable standing amongst the fallen fighters. Whaaaaaaa? Now I liked Cable from back in the day, but I thought they gave him wayyyyy too much credit for his return or whatever it is they were trying to tout. The art style in this book is standard comic fair which is not to say it is forgettable; just expected. I didn’t linger too long in the pages of this book, seeing as if I had, I probably would have got into an argument with one of the jocks there about how Wolverine could kick Cable’s ass.

“You Want Green Lantern. Just Take It”

This next one was just thrown upon me by Barbara because apparently it was not selling (for free) very well. I have never been a fan of Green Lantern but I have always been a fan of free stuff, so I conceded to her offer. I flipped through a few pages and the only thing I can say that truly stood out for me in this one was the last page which was an advertisement for pure awesomeness that I will now look to Amazon.com for advice on.

The One from Left Field

I grew up with Mega Man and I was not familiar with the comic iteration of him so I decided to go ahead and scoop it up and humor it for a moment. I was truthfully impressed with the art direction that they took with him, although basic and cartoony at first glance, the coloring and simplicity fit Mega Man like a male pony tail in a comic book shop. It was refreshing to see this iconic character handled in a proper fashion and made available for later generations who may not know the goodness that is Mega Man. I will be asking for The Mega Man at my next haircut appointment but not before I hang with ICE MAN later on for a few margaritas.

The Discovered Love

Toward the end of the table laid a book that almost beckoned my very childhood itself. A square-shaped comic with muted colors and scratchy drawings that instantly felt like Runaway Ralph meets old school Winnie the Pooh. The book is called Mouse Guard and apparently it is written and illustrated by a chap named David Petersen.

Now, I know what you are thinking. “Ryan, you picked the least-manliest thing in the comic book store as you’re favorite takeaway?”. The answer, dear reader, is yes. While I do like heroic proportions of muscles and page filling action scenes, I was hooked by the art style and topic of this book that was largely going unnoticed by the other visitors to my left and right. The fiction Petersen has created with these little mice is quite expansive and if you can’t cheer on little warrior mice (you evil bastard), what can you cheer for? This book just spoke to me as a person; not making that up. So much that I ended up purchasing a few copies of the regular series and stood in stasis for a good moment at the sight of the Roleplaying Game of Mouse Guard.

At this moment in my life, I was just looking for something different and unique and this haul certainly did not disappoint. Honorable mention goes out to Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz which also stood out graphically and one that I had not heard of but is now on my list of comics to purchase. It is funny when I think about it. A grown man going after these innocent little titles. There were plenty of Batman and Xmen to reach out to (two of my favorite set of characters) but I was in the mood for a new experience, for a new memory. I had already lived the life of one who gushed for epic mutant battles and enjoyed the shadowy tales of morbid anti-heroes. Now, it was time to grow and expand and I will be doing so on my couch, under the laboring ceiling fan, with a cold glass of lemonade.

Do you buy comics? If so, what do they say about the current chapter of your life?

]]>https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/my-free-comics-day-experience/feed/4FreeComicsDaytyrannoryanComics_TheAvengersflipComics_GreenLantern1Comics_GreenLantern2Comics_MeganMan1Comics_MeganMan2Comics_MouseGuard1Comics_MouseGuard2Xbox-idisedhttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/xbox-idised/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/xbox-idised/#commentsThu, 03 May 2012 02:01:42 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1932Continue reading →]]>In an interesting move, Microsoft is reportedly set to unleash a subsidized Xbox 360 bundle that will gladly part with retail shelves at $99. The bundle, as reported by theverge.com, will include a 4GB Xbox 360, Kinect, and a mandatory 2 year contract not unlike that snazzy computer-in-your-pocket referred to as a phone.

The idea is quite genius – in this non-geniuses’ opinion. Cell phones and even laptops/tablets have tested these subsidized waters out so it makes sense to try to capture more Halo-heads by dropping the entry fee lower and making up for it on the back-end. How? You will be required to pay $15 a month for Gold Membership instead of the standard $10 and if you should decide to try any funny business by canceling your service- yep, there’s an early termination fee.

Whether this will equate to more memberships from those who were on the fence about signing their soul over to Big M or those who just discovered the goodness that is videogamery; remains to be seen. What is certain is that this bundle is a great way to sell hard drives and can easily be the introduction/trojan horse/gateway drug for many a budding gamers and media streamers alike to join the festivities. Take that Apple TV!

]]>https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/xbox-idised/feed/6XboxidizedtyrannoryanThe Cabin in the Woodshttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/the-cabin-in-the-woods/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/the-cabin-in-the-woods/#commentsThu, 26 Apr 2012 22:59:43 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1923Continue reading →]]>Finally got the chance to see The Cabin in the Woods last night after hearing many good things, and it’s pleasant to say it didn’t disappoint.

For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer and don’t want to know anything other than it’s a cabin in the woods and some college kids head out there for a weekend of good times and/or maybe to get murdered a little, read no more.

For the rest of you: Knowing that there is more in the mix already still doesn’t prepare you for how fun this movie is.

Written by both Drew Goddard (director, also wrote Cloverfield) and Joss Whedon (producer), it opens with some great dialogue between two aging techs at a mysterious facility competing with others around the world. At the same time, five students (Dana, Jules, Thor, Holden and Marty the Stoner) are heading to the woods for a weekend retreat.

Yes, Thor.

We quickly establish a connection between the techs and the kids through hidden surveillance and the horror/hilarity/awesomeness ensues from there.

There are so many things worth mentioning in this movie – from the spooky guy they meet before the cabin, to the flashing of the movie title – that it’s hard not to get bogged down in discussing the details here because of how fantastic they are. Fans of movies like Evil Dead II and Drag me to Hell can easily get caught up in long conversations chronicling why they love them both. This movie was, essentially, made for them.

And again, it’s tough not to spoil the details for you because they are just so enjoyable.

It’s a refreshing flick, to say the least, for a genre that’s supersaturated with films that are all hack and slash and no substance. Cabin definitely has substance. Go see it.

]]>https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/the-cabin-in-the-woods/feed/4More Hardcore than it Looksaliciamartianas he looks throughout the entire movieThe Best ME3 Therapy You’ll See ’til the DLChttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/the-best-me3-therapy-youll-see-til-the-dlc/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/the-best-me3-therapy-youll-see-til-the-dlc/#respondSat, 21 Apr 2012 04:25:23 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1783Continue reading →]]>I think it’s time. I think it’s time I leave my Mass Effect 3 ending induced stupor and got back to my life and/or other videogames – but it was a difficult journey to get here. I slept all day. I gained five pounds in break-up-like ice cream binges filled with tears for the concluded moments I never got to see and the other ones that confused the hell out of me.

I think it’s time I shared my therapy with you.

I intend for this to be the best damn collection of Mass Effect related therapy (see also: jpeg train) until the DLC comes out later this Summer. I’m not here to bash the ending or say the things that have been said a million times already (indoctrination theory, just remake the endings altogether, Bioware how/why did you fuck up my love interest so royally), just here to share the post-relationship photos I wept over.

Because, despite everything, I still love the series and part of me will always be affected by the “first play through is the true play through” logic. It’s hard to hate a game entirely when I had a blast playing it as FemShep, or as I like to call her, Best Shep – when it’s littered with so many poignant moments. Maybe the last few didn’t make any sense, but I can’t discredit the others (altogether) because of that.

If it’s not sourced, let me know. Spoilers abound.

If all goes well, I might add more. If it doesn’t, hey, at least I didn’t spam you with Shrios pics like I wanted to. Filthy, filthy Shrios pics.

]]>https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/the-best-me3-therapy-youll-see-til-the-dlc/feed/0Don't lie. You need it too.aliciamartianYep, pretty much, but with food.My thoughts exactly. Thank you, Adventure Time.doucheWhatever, I kicked his ass anywayAsari lifespanSeriously, always renegade that bitchYes She Canonly subconsciously noticed thissome truthpoopfaceomg i luff your reaper faceMass Effect 3 - More like depression simulatorRemixManga on the Brainhttps://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/manga-on-the-brain/
https://pixlpress.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/manga-on-the-brain/#commentsMon, 16 Apr 2012 21:05:23 +0000http://thepixlpress.com/?p=1848Continue reading →]]>Though previously content to satiate my manga habit with only Bleach or Naruto, I’ve grown to see that the wonderful world of manga has much more out there to enjoy in the way of action-themed books. So without further hesitation, I’ve decided to include a couple of finds that can possibly help you start off on your own journey of manga self-discovery; think Eat-Pray-Love but with flying ninjas and magic spells.

At a Glance: Classic struggle between good and evil with a terrifically original twist.

Synopsis: Armageddon has occurred in the future and a select few people exist in the present with the special ability to travel to the post-apocalyptic realm of “Psyren” in the hopes of changing the world’s fate. Along the way they are met with many challenges including mutant creations, foreign lands and bad guys who generally have a knack for causing worldwide chaos and destruction. Did I mention that everyone has awesome psychic powers as well? Definitely worth checking out if you like anything related to superheroes with anti-hero personalities.

Notes: So surprised by this book! It started a little slow for me but when it took off I was glued to the pages. The dialogue evolves as the story progresses and gets darker. The series is also completed so you don’t have to worry about scouring the earth to find the next book!

At a glance: Boiling this book down to 3 key points I’d say: Lots of fighting, unique story and amazing art

Synopsis:Drifters are people throughout the ages (primarily warriors) who have for whatever reason been transported at the brink of death to a world where time knows no bounds. Though much in the dark about their ultimate mission in their new land, the Drifters witness things in this mysterious new world that threaten the native population, resulting in…you guessed it, a heroic struggle against a great evil. In particular they are tasked with defeating the “Offscorings,” or “Ends,” who are people once revered on Earth but died horrible deaths most often attributed to betrayal. It’s the perfect historical fiction and action mash up. In what other manga do you see Billy the Kid fighting alongside Hannibal against the likes of Joan of Arc and Rasputin??

Notes: WOW. If you’re into historical fiction then you’ve got a goldmine in Drifters. Personally loved this book from the moment I started to read. Takes a while to receive translations for whatever reason, but they are very much worth the wait.

At a glance: Sophisticated noir paired with heavy-hitting action sequences.

Synopsis: In this reality there exist humans and the occult, creatures who in some cases can take human form but for the most part are noticeably different. All is content within the city of Dominica until a shady blonde shows up offering the main character Colin a mysterious mission he can’t refuse. Colin’s own story is not near as simple as it seems and he soon finds himself dragged into a conflict of increasingly epic proportions. Filled with suspense and intrigue, this book is a definite page-turner.

Notes:Too cool. If you wanna read Sin City with a flair of both X-men and Powers, Chan and Shoemaker definitely made this book for you. Each new panel will keep you on the edge of your seat.

At a glance: The most grounded on the list in regards to the fact that it doesn’t involve superpowers per se, just badass Viking warriors.

Synopsis: This awesome manga follows the plight of a young Viking named Thorfinn. The book really sets its roots deep in Danish mythology and the historical detail is so well done that I almost think kids would benefit from having all their history lessons provided by Yukimura himself. The polish on the artwork and the dialogue between characters magnificently accentuates the most interesting facets of 11th century warfare.

Notes: If you’re like me and usually go for the stuff with super-powers and the like, you’ll have to forego them for this book, but for good reason. The attention to detail in the artwork more than makes up for any lack of excess fantasy.

Hopefully as a fellow manga fan I’ve given you a fair count of some action books to put in rotation and if you’re new to manga some much needed manga-related exposure. If anybody knows any other great manga we should all be checking out, drop a comment ASAP. I know this post was limited to action, but all genres are appreciated!

I know I am late to the Tekken Party with this one, but I stumbled across this movie just the other day and decided to give it a go. I did not have the “pleasure” of watching the Tekken Live Action movie, but I have always been a fan of all things Tekken. It was one of the few fighting games that I devoted countless hours to and the glimpses of story that the cutscenes provided were interesting and archaic. How one could make sense of all these varied characters and their intersecting plot lines was beyond me, but Tekken Blood Vengeance looks to take a decent heap of these fighters and flesh out a full length computer animated story for us to enjoy.

The first thing that sticks out about this movie is how polished it looks. Shimmering outfits, brooding temples, and colorful palettes that fluctuate throughout the mission. I have a fond appreciation of CG movies like Final Fantasy: Advent Children and Resident Evil: Degeneration and this movie certainly deserves to be amongst those that took the time to craft such detailed imagery. Digital Frontier is the house behind this Tekken movie and they also happened to give flesh to the RE: Degeneration movie mentioned previously. Their talent shines through with believable facial expressions and hair that flows with a dream-like sway. I was hooked on their craft in this movie the moment you meet Alisa and stare back into her big, glossy eyes.

Of course, this would only mean so much if it had a halfway decent story to give it a soul. Thankfully, this collaboration included Screenwriter Dai Sato who is credited with work on Cowboy Beebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The story unfolds mostly from the perspective of Ling Xiaoyu, a student who is contracted to lure a high prospect target so that her new employer may capture him. The problem is, her employer is not the only one with an interest for this target and you soon see how these separate parties all have strong, historical ties to each other and different intentions with the capture of this individual. The voice acting is decent, with the female voice actors hitting the mark more so than the males, and the music can be a bit dated sounding for something that was paired up against the beautiful animation but nothing that induced vomiting by any means.

All in all, it was enjoyable to see some of my favorite characters interact with each other and receive a better, rounded out story replete with quirky Japanese humor. It is also worth mentioning that the first 30 minutes of the movie can easily be played along with at home with my OFFICIAL TEKKEN UPSKIRT DRINKING GAME. The rules are simple: Every time you see an upskirt shot, you take a shot. It’s that easy! In fact, your enjoyment of the latter half of the movie might even quadruple mine.

RECOMMEND: Gamers, Tekken fans, people who like pandasDO NOT RECOMMEND: People who have never watched a foreign film in their life.

The web has been aflutter with talk about next-gen consoles and what exactly their presence will afford us. A large portion of the gossip pie is focused on the idea that both heavy hitters, Sony and Microsoft, appear to be looking to nip this whole used game nuisance in the bud by only allowing new games to be played on their respective machines. All of this in effort to skirt pirating and to gain back that lost money that developers got short-changed on just because some heathen decided to buy used rather than new. This, for obvious reasons, has some nerds up in arms about the prospect of losing their collector’s edition packages and their rights(?) to sell their game back to Gamestop for much less than they would sell it to their best friend for.

Make no mistake folks, the writing is on the wall and we will soon be ushered into a new stage of Access and leave behind the old school realm of Ownership. Netflix has excelled at this concept and the music industry has appeared to have reluctantly adopted this model as well in favor of still being relevant, so it makes sense that the video game industry get on board with the digital age. The only problem I have with this arose when I booted up my copy (have fun saying that while you can) of Battlefield 3 and was greeted to an update screen, so I naturally accepted and let the update begin. After checking my phone and sipping on my château concord grape juice (vintage 2012), I was ready to kick some polygon butt! Instead of that, it began to pique my curiosity as to how much space this game was now taking up on my hard drive. With a few clicks on the Xbox menu, I made this discovery:

Holy Snapple! That is a lot of bytes for a game I did not even save to my HD. Now, you may be thinking “Big deal. I’ve got huge storage and the ladies love me“. You may be okay, but I found myself having to delete items and purge my system of saves that I do not plan to go back to visit and content that I deemed expendable just because I was reaching my limit for saves.

So I went in and started to clean a few things out because I was also wanting to download a few demos to play over the weekend and it got me thinking. If we are going to move to disc-less consoles, we are certainly going to need a terabyte or two just to make it through a winter’s avalanche of games. With everything still on the Battlefield disc, I still have an extra 3+ gigs added onto it. What if I started with a digital copy of BF3? How much elbow room would that beast need to find a home on my console? Carcassonne wouldn’t stand a chance.

Yes. My wife and I enjoy playing Carcassonne.

We are at this huge shift in how we play our video games (mostly those who are not PC gamers) that I can only look to cloud storage for answers to help bridge the impending new world order. Content in the cloud would at least spare me the large bug fix downloads that didn’t seem to make the physical games’ release date and I could possibly even have access to my content when I visit a friend’s house, which never happens in my real life but it sounds good to say. The issue with that pipe dream of mine is that some insiders do not feel that the jump to the cloud will occur during the next console release, but rather further down the road when we may not even have to make room on our entertainment shelves for a console box at all.

If that is the case, we are stuck in this transition phase and doomed to be the middle children of technology for at least the next few years. Cutting our way through the wilderness of less material property in hopes that the promise land of accessibility will open the flood gates to a world that suits both sides of the game. In the meantime, we may as well enjoy what we have now and muster up the strength to keep this industry profitable by relinquishing the one thing this industry gave us: a stack of plastic cases and the ability to introduce someone else to a new experience simply by placing it in their hands. The surrender sounds imminent and though you may want that as much as a cat wants a bath, our new digital drug overlords may allow us to experience their inventory in new and exciting ways.

Seeing the release of Sine Mora, a side-scrolling shooter on Xbox Live Arcade, came with the nostalgia of playing classic shooters of my past. Now, I am not one to get excited about these games mainly because I have played very few that have actually switched it up enough to keep my interests and out of the bevy of other enthralling games to choose from; side-scrollers had taken a back seat during most of my playing career as a sofa jockey. I assimilate most of these shooters as casual-arcade fun and one of the few genres that I really don’t care to see the ending of the game. Whether it be from the nonchalant attitude I have with them to begin with or the lack of character development in most of these; I do not know. While waiting for the download to complete with Sine Mora, I had considered one thing though: How did I get here? Here’s how.

It started with a game called Contra. Originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, this was the game to have if you ever wanted your friends to come over to your house to play. It made having that second controller worth it. The premise was simple and the story was…well…simple as well (it was the 80’s). You run from left to right, shoot things and dodge things. You also had to fight over who got to what power up first and were responsible for killing your teammate quite a few times for simply moving forward while they were doing something non-productive. This also was my first introduction to the Konami Code, but I digress. I played this game til the contacts on the cartridge gave out and never tired of it. Shortly after its retirement, I would soon run into the next evolution in side-scrolling games at my local 7-11.

Early mornings in middle school were not much easier than they are now, but one thing in particular gave me good enough reason to walk to school a bit earlier than I needed to. That reason was 7-11. In all of their wisdom, they had decided to convert their copy/fax room into a small arcade and stock it with Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and a Neo-Geo cabinet replete with 5-6 games. It wasn’t long that a handful of kids were made aware of this and so each morning a handful of us would pile into this crammed corner and waste our lunch money on the digital goodness. While most of my quarters went on Blanka and Ken, I began to spend my time between the matches I wasn’t fighting in to check out the Neo Geo system and, it was at this point, that I had discovered Metal Slug. This game took what I knew about Contra and raised the bar in the action department. I thought juggling a few fire pellets was tough on the reflexes; this screen was covered in bullets and missiles drawn to you like a magnet. I don’t recall the story much but 7am comprehension was never a strength mine. All I knew is that the idea was still basic enough and the system could be beat as long has you juked and jived at the right moments. It was certainly a tough game to try to get through on quarters and I’m sure the management at 7-11 loved me all the more for it. After Metal Slug, it would be some time ’til I cared enough to get involved with another side-scrolling shooter and that time was the PSX.

Working for Gamestop at the time, I had come across a game that was traded in without a case or booklet and the image on the disc intrigued me enough to rent it (and later buy it). The game was Einhander and not only did it serve up a story with unique/futuristic bosses, it was my first step into side-scrolling spaceship shooters. Now, by this point in life, I had already tried such greats as Metroid and R-Type and I honestly did not care much for them. Not sure why, it just never clicked for me and preferred to play more story driven games. The controls were similar enough to the other shooters I had played but the graphics and creativity on Einhander was the attention grabber. It was also a pretty tough game and not very forgiving. As fun as fighting games and clever camera angles of Lara Croft were, they were beatable games. Something about this tough shooter had me fixated on solving it and getting the confusing ending I deserved. Perhaps it was ego that drove me to finish the game, but it was appreciation I had felt when I had accomplished this trying challenge of a game. That was the last side-scrolling shooter I got involved with.

Now, with my download complete of Sine Mora, I will have another go at a classic genre that doesn’t get a lot of spotlight, but I have heard good things about it, so we’ll just see if it has that special “umph” that will help vie for my couch time.